Massachusetts health officials reported another 1,243 confirmed coronavirus cases and seven new deaths on Monday as the testing rate rose above 1.6%.
The report pushed the state's confirmed COVID-19 caseload to 669,647 since the start of the pandemic and its death toll to 17,685.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health no longer issues COVID reports over the weekend. The average daily number of new cases covered in Monday's update, from Friday, Saturday and Sunday, is about 414.
The state's COVID metrics, tracked on the Department of Public Health's interactive coronavirus dashboard, are far lower than they were several months ago, though some have been rising in the last few weeks. While breakthrough cases are being reported, officials say most new cases are in the unvaccinated, especially serious infections.
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Massachusetts' seven-day average of positive tests rose to 1.65% on Monday. It was once above 30%, but had dropped under 0.5% until the delta variant began surging in the state.
The number of patients in Massachusetts hospitals with confirmed COVID-19 cases rose to 145; the figure was once nearly 4,000. Of those currently hospitalized, 32 are listed as being in intensive care units and 14 are intubated.
More Mass. COVID News
More than 8.8 million vaccine doses have been administered in Massachusetts as of Monday. That includes nearly 4.6 million first shots and more than 4 million second shots of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. There have been more than 286,000 doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered.
Health officials on Monday reported that a total of 4,332,329 Bay State residents have been fully vaccinated.
